“Just to walk around and not see that person and not ever, ever knowing what happened, I couldn’t imagine that,” says Shaw, “We hope to bring some type of closure, some type of hope to these families.”

Michigan State Police are collecting DNA and other information at the “Missing in Michigan” conference, which is in its third year.

Many people at this year's conference have been looking for loved ones for years. Carol Ryan is one of the lucky ones. Her daughter was found three weeks after she was abducted.

But Ryan says you’d be wrong if you think this is just a problem involving children.

“As evidenced by several families here, adults are family members….when they vanish it hurts just as much,” says Ryan.

Two previous Missing in Michigan conferences have helped solve four missing persons cases in Michigan. DNA samples collected at the conferences were used to ID three sets of remains. In the fourth case, a 16 year old girl was reunited with her family.